After a long day – or several – at your desk, the last thing you probably want to think about is putting your gym kit on, or sweating through a high-energy strength session. But, psychologically, exercise might just be the stress-reducing break you and your nervous system need, according to new research published in The Journal of Affective Disorders.
A survey of 7,973 office workers between 2020 and 2022 found that those who engaged in at least 25 minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise, along with 30 to 60 minutes of light activity each day, had a 62% lower risk of burnout – a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion due to extended job stress, separate from general fatigue.
And even without reaching the 60 minutes of low-intensity activity, those who consistently did the 25 minutes of heart-rate-increasing movement still experienced reduced burnout risk.
In the study, people reported their activity levels over seven days through a self-written questionnaire and underwent workplace health checkups.
What kind of exercise should I be doing?
Encouragingly, light activity can easily be incorporated into your daily routine, as it includes walking slowly, moving around the office or home, or even getting up to make a cup of tea, says the NHS.
Moderate-intensity exercise is classed as movement that raises your heart rate and breathe faster: brisk walking, strength training, riding a bike, washing your car, jogging or walking up stairs for 15 minutes.
Vigorous activities include sprinting, interval running or cycling, workouts with bodyweight exercises like burpees or push-ups, or heavy weight training.
While physical activity has been shown to help manage depression, this is the first study to examine the link between exercise and burnout among working adults.
‘This study goes beyond simply looking at whether people exercise, analysing the mental health effects of different combinations of intensity and duration under everyday conditions,’ said study co-author Professor Jeon Sang-won of the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul. ‘Making time to move your body, even a few times a week, can be the first step in protecting your mental wellbeing.’
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